Best TV for 0-3s

[NanaGary]

Parents and grandparents of babies and toddlers! Please tell me the programmes and videos your kids like best. Ive just spent a grim morning watching in-yer-face American animations on YouTube Kids. There must be better stuff for 0-3s somewhere?

Well that would be a hard no in our house. We're not anti TV, but trashy YouTube is not an option.
We like:
Topsy and Tim (iPlayer)
Dinosaur train (prime)
Thomas and friends (mixture)
Tractor Ted (prime)

Hey Duggee, Giant Jack, Bluey, Sarah and Duck and Puffin Rock are all quite cute and bearable.

CBeebies is so good that it’s worth the licence fee alone.

And I agree with a previous poster - we are not at all anti-screen in our house but we do not allow YouTube for kids.

Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley are on Prime 😁

Thanks to responders so far! I should have asked - for people who don't mind doing so - what ages your children are. I'm particularly interested in what the very youngest in this age-group (ie babies) are watching (I know some parents don't allow that but the stats say that 75% of UK 12-month-olds are established TV-viewers).

the stats say that 75% of UK 12-month-olds are established TV-viewers).

That's not a target you have to aim for? NHS advises against screen time for babies

0 and 3 are quite different ages. We didn't watch TV with ours at all before they were 1, but they weren't interested for very long at that age. Both liked In the Night Garden. My 1 year old likes to watch the 2-minute long tooth-brushing cartoons you get on youtube, which is the only time we use it.

Cbeebies shows such as baby club, yakka dee, mr tumble (something special) tee and mo, hey duggee, really any Cbeebies show made by the bbc, not imports like cocomelon.

Maddie's Do You Know. My son was a huge fan when he was little. It's a great show.

75% of UK babies watching TV isn't a target - it's a statistic - or it was in 2017: (https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-017-0541-8). The good news may be that the 900,000+ UK kids born in 2022 and the first half of 2023) were improving their attainment in all five of the “domains of development” (that is, social, emotional, physical, cognitive and language):https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-health-improvement-and-disparities). So maybe all that TV-watching wasn't so bad after all?

Eh?
This is why better maths education is needed. Just because 75% of UK babies had watched screens doesn't mean yours need to. And your second stat doesn't prove your first stat is a good thing.

I didn't say it did! But it does suggest that the dire predictions about the effects of TV-watching are overstated.

TV has a place in most homes with toddlers I believe, as long as it isn't all day everyday. My child has learned a lot of things about dinosaurs and sea creatures (his favourite subjects) from watching TV. He can identify species of shark or dinosaur better than most adults. It isn't all bad. Of course, he plays with toys, does puzzles, reads books, goes to the park, has playdates too! It's all about balance.

My 3 year old has been into Octonauts (Cbeebies), Gigantasaurus (Netflix), Blippi (Netflix and Youtube) to name a few of his favourites.

My son loved In the Night Garden and they both liked the Teletubbies when they were that age group.

Is this research for your book?

Are you the poster who is writing a book and using MN for research?

Thanks for your comments Baby 26 and deadpan! Yes iwontletthtesungodownoneme and Teachingagain I am writing a book based on my PhD research, but I'm not using MN for research - just for pointers to current TV that 0-3's are watching so that I can catch up with what's popular now. Not surprised to see the comments about YouTube Kids - I'll certainly be writing about that 🙁(busy morning being screamed at to HAVE FUN!!!)

I agree CBeebies is by far the best of a bad bunch.

Both of mine have enjoyed Small Potatoes and Baby Jake (CBeebies). I like Bluey. The older one who’s now much too old still watches Waffle Dog!

Love all the Julia Donaldson adaptations on iPlayer like room on the broom and stick man.

Thanks to Springadorable's response to my question about TV that kids like. Her post had two titles that I knew (Dinosaur Train and Thomas & Friends, both of which my twin grandchildren watched a lot) and two that I didn't (Topsy and Tim and Tractor Ted). One of the impressive things about all these shows is that they're all obviously high budget - live action in two titles; 3D animation in the others - mix of both in TTed; big landscapes, depth of field, child actors - and in all of them, no mad music or screaming at you to HAVE FUN! They're lovely and must have cost a lot -and they're all quite old (though they don't look it). Are there any current shows with such big budgets, I wonder?

Thanks deadpan - my grandchildren (my PhD research subjects!) also loved In the Night Garden and Teletubbies - I'm writing about the ITNG title sequence in my book - I think it's brilliant. Both are - again - high budget productions, but must have been worth it given their enormous world-wide sales.

Wow Blossombubblesbuttercup: I hadn't seen Giant Jack altho I do have Netwflix. It was Trash Truck in the US - no wonder they changed it for the UK and thank goodness they re-voiced it too). Really detailed and satisfying 3D animation - I loved it!

Hi Keycakedisco: thank you SO much for the Julia Donaldson recommendation! I hadn't seen the 26-minute Room on the Broom film and was really amazed by its quality - wonderful textures and detail as well as a great script and genuinely exciting too. Ive also got a page of notes now about the credits - European funding, I see, and an Albert Certificate! I'd love to hear from anyone else whose kid(s) have watched it.

Hi steelingmyself - thanks for reminding me of Baby Jake - my twin grandchildren were really dedicated to it when they were two and a bit years old. It's interesting I think for toddlers when a programme mixes live action and animation - seems like it's taking you into another world maybe?